Two Hearts Bound
by NeciOnatah
Summary: This is the story of the beautiful Erianthe. Her life is harsh at times, but things may just turn around for her. Cause when life is really hard, it can only get better. This fanfic will somewhat follow the main quest of Skyrim, so don't read if you don't want any potential spoilers. I rated it M, just to be sure. My first fanfiction, so I very appreciate if you read and review! :D
1. The Beginning

**AN: _Disclaimer: Bethesda Softworks owns Skyrim and all cities/characters that I may write about in this story, such as Dorthe, Alvor, Ralof, Riverwood and so on.  
_****_I only made up the character Erianthe, so I guess she kind of belongs to me._**

Erianthe was, as usual, making her way through the village where she lived, Riverwood, heading to the south road. She was on her way to make the trip she had made every Morndas for almost two months now. Erianthe can remember the day very clearly when she made her first trip, on Morndas, 17th of Last Seed 4E 201, when she got the terrible news. She stops for a little while and leans against one of the pillars of the Riverwood Trader.

* * *

She remembers that she was just talking to Dorthe, Alvor and Sigrid's little daughter, sitting on the stairs that lead up to Dorthes fathers forge. She and Dorthe were discussing that she will become a blacksmith one day. Erianthe was facing the south road while she sat there and talked to Dorthe, and glanced to it every now and then because she was expecting her father to come home that day. Then she suddenly saw Ralof and some stranger in Stormcloak armor. The stranger, who was a young male nord, probably only a few years older than her. He was very muscular and tall, with facial features that appealed to her. He had chestnut brown hair, pulled back in a sloppy ponytail. He also had golden brown eyes. She remembers thinking that she thought he was very, very handsome, even from afar.

Erianthe quickly finished her conversation with Dorthe and walked up to Ralof, whom she had known her whole life, and who was a dear friend of hers. Ralof and the stranger were just about to cross the bridge to the mill. She had stopped just in front of them, looking at the stranger, who looked back with wide eyes, and remembers thinking that the stranger was even more handsome from up close. Erianthe knew why he was staring. She knew she looked good, with her long, wavy black velvet like hair, which was in contrast to her very fair skin and her sparkling light blue eyes. Many of Riverwoods boys have had a crush on her in her childhood, including Sven, Faendal, and even Ralof, while many of the Riverwood girls had been jealous on her. She had never been interested in anyone in Riverwood, until now...  
She had stroke her long hair behind her ear and turned to Ralof, and said:

"Ralof, is everything alright? You look kind of… troubled."

"Aye, but I have some bad news. I have to go see Gerdur at her mill immediately, but I'll come back to you right after and tell you something." Ralof had answered whilst he turned his back on her and started walking before even finishing his sentence, and the stranger smiled to her before turning around and following him.

"Uh, okay…" She had mumbled after him, not sure if he even heard her.

Erianthe had walked back to the stairs of the blacksmith and sat down thinking what the bad news could be. She remembers sitting there and waiting for about 15 minutes, pondering what the news could be, when Ralof finally showed up. She saw the stranger passing by behind Ralof, following Hod in the direction of his and Gerdurs house. She rose and started walking toward Ralof. When they stood in front of each other Ralof said:

"I think it's best if you sit down, Erianthe."

"Okay, come on" she said and took his hand and dragged him along behind her, and sat him and herself down on the wooden floor in front of the Riverwood trader. She let go of his hand and asked:

"So... What is the bad news?"

"I don't know how to tell you this… But your father…"

_My father?_ She had thought.

"What about my father?"

"Your father… He is… He's… dead. The imperials beheaded him. The stranger and I was about to be next, when suddenly a very large black dragon appeared. If it wouldn't have been for the dragon, I would be dead alongside my friend who came with me."

"What?!" She rose, and her eyes got filled with tears. "Is my father…? Dead? He can't be dead! He was supposed to come back home today, he can't be…"

Ralof rose too and gave her a quick hug whilst saying:

"I know it's hard to believe, and I was there. He was as fearless in death as he was in life. I'm so sorry…"

"I… I don't know what to say... I think I need to be alone now, Ralof."

"That's okay, I need to be heading to Hod and Gerdurs house and speak with my friend. Bye Erianthe"

Erianthe hadn't even bothered to say bye, she just turned around in tears and ran away, through the south road. She ran and ran, out of Riverwood and past the guardian stones, uphill on a cobble path. She took right when the path split in two and ran forward a little while, and then she saw a little stepped path and ran on it upward. She remembers crying the whole time. When the path ended she saw a shrine, but she didn't know which gods it was. She saw four worshippers, some in robes and some in regular clothes, and wiped her tears while walking up to the worshipper closest to her.

"What shrine is this?" She had asked.

"This is the Shrine of Talos, child, welcome." The worshipper answered in a mild tone.

"Oh… Do you mind if I sit here for a while? I just found out that my father is dead and I know he worshipped Talos."

"Of course not, child. Take all the time you need"

That was when Erianthe decided to visit that Shrine of Talos every Morndas, in honor of her father.  
_Ugh, I can't bear to think of this right now. Best I continue my journey toward the Shrine_, she thought.

* * *

She stopped leaning against the pillar and continued her way out of Riverwood. She liked to take the trip to the shrine, she had become friends with the worshippers and longed to see them again. When she got to the little stepped path she got the feeling that something wasn't right. She touched her steel dagger that was sheathed on her left side, controlling that it was there in case she might need it. The steel dagger was given to her by her father before he died, on her 15th birthday, and she was 19 now. They had trained together sometimes so she wasn't completely useless, should she ever find herself in a fight. When she was done controlling that the dagger was there, she continued upward the path.

_**AN: Hope you enjoyed the first chapter of my story, Two Hearts Bound! Next chapter is coming soon :D I'm sorry for any grammar mistakes or such that I may have made. I checked my text but english is not my native language. Also, sorry if some info is incorrect, like the amount of worshippers by the shrine or the way to it, I don't have access to play Skyrim right now, and what I don't remember I check up on uesp or eldersrollswiki.  
****The action will start in chapter 3!**_


	2. Shrine of Talos

**AN: Disclaimer: Bethesda Softworks owns Skyrim and all cities/characters that I may write about in this story, such as Dorthe, Alvor, Ralof, Riverwood and so on.I only made up the character Erianthe, so I guess she kind of belongs to me.**

When Erianthe got up the path to the shrine she almost got a heart attack. Her eyes immediately got filled with tears and she got sick to her stomach and had to sit down on the grass where she stood. She put her hand on her mouth, to not throw up. This was the worst thing she had ever seen. The three worshippers, her friends, were lying on the ground by the shrine, pale and bloody… and dead. Erianthe cried out:

"NO!"

_Who would do this, and why? These people would never harm anyone_, she thought to herself.

She got up, still crying, and started looking around. She didn't know for what, maybe for a clue to who did this, or maybe because she still had the feeling that something wasn't right, she felt like she was being… watched. She started walking around a little bit and saw something in a bush, on a little cliff, a little lowered down. It was a dead and bloody man, with hooded dark blue robes on, almost black. He had some kind of… claws almost, coming out of his gloves, and there were golden details on his robes. Then Erianthe saw his face she was filled with hatred. His skin was kind of yellow, he was a High Elf, a Thalmor Soldier. She didn't really know much about the Thalmor, she only knew that her father hated them, like the true Stormcloak Soldier he was, when he was still alive. And now she hated the Thalmor too, because they had killed her friends. _At least he is dead too_, she thought.

_Should I search him? _Erianthe thought, _maybe he has a note, orders, or something on him that tells why he would kill these worshippers. _

Although she was very disgusted by even looking at him, she glanced back and saw her dead friends, and got the courage to search him. She crouched down beside the dead Thalmor Soldier and found a letter in a pocket. Just when she was about to read it, she heard something behind her. She immediately got back up and stuck the letter in her pouch that was hanging on her brown belt on her favorite dress.

Her dress was pretty simple, but yet so very beautiful. It was light blue, just like her eyes, and made of satin. The dress was embroided on the square neckline which barely sat on her shoulders with white, and it showed a deep cleavage. It was also embroided with white on the end of the sleeves, which were tight on her upper arm, but got wider when they got to her elbow, and long on the backside of her arm, in a triangular, kind of oval shape. Her dress fitted perfectly and tightly on her upper body and waist, and began to widen below her waist, with a short train on the back of her dress. She was also wearing her amulet of Mara, even though she wasn't looking for marriage. She valued her dress and amulet greatly, she had gotten them from her mother.

Erianthe laid her left hand on her steel dagger, even though she used it with her right hand when she fought, but she thought it felt better to have at least one hand on her dagger. She turned around, with her hand on her dagger, and saw five figures coming up the hill. She couldn't see who they were yet, they were too far away, but she got a bad feeling anyway, and glanced over her shoulder to see if she could escape that way. Damn. The cliff she was standing on was too high and steep, there was no way she could climb down. When the figures got closer and closer she took a harder grip of her steel dagger. The figures finally got close enough so that she could see them. It was the Thalmor! There were 4 Thalmor soldiers and one Thalmor wizard. The soldiers were male and the wizard was female. _Mara,_ _protect me, _she thought. The Thalmor wizard stopped right in front of Erianthe, with two soldiers on both sides of her. She stared right into Erianthes light blue eyes, with her amber-colored eyes.

"Well well well, what do we have here?"

Erianthe just stared back, unable and unwilling to answer the Thalmor wizard. She was very afraid of the Wizard, she had never seen anyone use magic before, but she had read of it in books, and what it can do, such as flames, which was apparently very easy to learn. But she was even more afraid of shouting and a dragonborn, she had read of it too. Her grip of her dagger tightened. The Thalmor Wizard saw that she tightened her grip of the dagger and she let out a short, shrill laughter and said:

"A dagger? You think a dagger will help against us, the Mer? Don't be foolish girl."

"What do you want with me?" Erianthe said, when she finally got the courage to speak up.

"Well, that letter you took from my dead companion over there is the first thing I want from you"

"And what is the second thing?"

"I want you to tell me what you are doing here by the Shrine of Talos, do you worship Talos?"

"No I don't, I just… I come here to think of my father who was killed, he used to worship Talos." _Probably killed by your kind, _Erianthe thought to herself.

"Oh you poor little girl. Do you know that it is illegal to worship Talos? Do you know the location of anyone else who worships Talos?"

"No."

"Oh but I think you do. You will just have to come with us girl."

"I am not coming with you anywhere." Erianthe said angrily, while she drew her dagger.

"Ha ha ha, put that away. You will only hurt yourself."

"No, I will hurt you." Erianthe whispered, and took a leap forward, with her dagger in front of her.

Erianthe tried to hit one of the Thalmor soldiers with her dagger, but one of them punched her right in the face before she could hit any of them, and she passed out.


End file.
